Frugal Petcare

I LOVE my dogs.  I hate to admit it, but I do.  I grew up with a mother who was born the year of the dog under the Chinese Zodiac who HATED  dogs (go figure). I never had a pet dog growing up, and did not want anything to do with dogs ever since.  Marriage changed all that. I got married and had a couple of kids. My husband said they needed to grow up with dogs.  I said, "no way, I don't want that responsibility on top of the kids." I got overruled. I don't mind in the least.  : )

As you can see, Livingston, our mutt, is my alter ego photo of me for this blog.  I love her to death.

Anyways, my frugal "dog-owner" tip of the day is, sometimes, it is more frugal to spend a little more money to save a LOT.  We have our dogs on an anti-heartworm, flea & intestinal worm medication called Trifexis.  The medication is not cheap, it is about $70 per dog for a six month supply of the medication, but as far as I'm concerned, it is worth every penny.

We used to spend a small fortune buying flea/tick spray every other week or so to keep the fleas under control, in addition to the drops you would put down their backs.  As diligent as we were, we would have flea outbreaks and we would have to go out and buy more flea control medication and foggers to get rid of the fleas in the house.  We reached a crisis point when Livingston had an allergic reaction to flea bites and I noticed her skin turning red under her fur.  The vet said she was allergic to flea bites, and gave her a Cortisone shot (for about $100) and suggested that I put her on "Trifexis" .

He explained that the medicine will start working within 30 minutes, and will continue to kill fleas on her and in the house for approximately one month.  True to his word, it worked like a charm.  We have not had  flea infestations in over a year, and I have not had to purchase flea spray or drops.  Even though the medication  is expensive, we are saving a TON of money because we have not had to buy anything other than the pills.  The dogs are always comfortable, and they don't have to deal with us having to spray them all the time, which they hated.  It is a win-win situation.

Sometimes, you need to spend some money to save a lot.